And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your plunder will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap.
- BSB Your spoil, O nations, is gathered as by locusts; like a swarm of locusts men sweep over it.
- NKJV And Your plunder shall be gathered Like the gathering of the caterpillar; As the running to and fro of locusts, He shall run upon them.
- NASB Your plunder is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; Like an infestation of locusts, people storm it.
- NLT Just as caterpillars and locusts strip the fields and vines, so the fallen army of Assyria will be stripped!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The enemy's plunder will be gathered up swiftly, as locusts swarm and leap upon it. It matters because the spoils of the defeated oppressor pass to God's people.
Overview
Following the enemy's rout, Isaiah pictures the gathering of their abandoned plunder, swift and thorough like swarming locusts. The reversal turns the oppressor's spoil into the people's gain. It dramatizes God's complete victory and the way He turns the schemes of the wicked to the good of His own.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Joel 2:25And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.
- 2 Chr 14:13And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them unto Gerar: and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before the LORD, and before his host; and they carried away very much spoil.
- 2 Chr 20:25And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much.
- Isa 33:23Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey.
- Joel 2:9They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
- 2 Kgs 7:15–16And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 33:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.